Florida Deploys Robot Rabbits To Control Invasive Burmese Python Population (cbsnews.com) 31
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: They look, move and even smell like the kind of furry Everglades marsh rabbit a Burmese python would love to eat. But these bunnies are robots meant to lure the giant invasive snakes out of their hiding spots. It's the latest effort by the South Florida Water Management District to eliminate as many pythons as possible from the Everglades, where they are decimating native species with their voracious appetites. In Everglades National Park, officials say the snakes have eliminated 95% of small mammals as well as thousands of birds. "Removing them is fairly simple. It's detection. We're having a really hard time finding them," said Mike Kirkland, lead invasive animal biologist for the water district. "They're so well camouflaged in the field."
The water district and University of Florida researchers deployed 120 robot rabbits this summer as an experiment. Previously, there was an effort to use live rabbits as snake lures but that became too expensive and time-consuming, Kirkland said. The robots are simple toy rabbits, but retrofitted to emit heat, a smell and to make natural movements to appear like any other regular rabbit. "They look like a real rabbit," Kirkland said. They are solar powered and can be switched on and off remotely. They are placed in small pens monitored by a video camera that sends out a signal when a python is nearby. "Then I can deploy one of our many contractors to go out and remove the python," Kirkland said. The total cost per robot rabbit is about $4,000, financed by the water district, he added.
The water district and University of Florida researchers deployed 120 robot rabbits this summer as an experiment. Previously, there was an effort to use live rabbits as snake lures but that became too expensive and time-consuming, Kirkland said. The robots are simple toy rabbits, but retrofitted to emit heat, a smell and to make natural movements to appear like any other regular rabbit. "They look like a real rabbit," Kirkland said. They are solar powered and can be switched on and off remotely. They are placed in small pens monitored by a video camera that sends out a signal when a python is nearby. "Then I can deploy one of our many contractors to go out and remove the python," Kirkland said. The total cost per robot rabbit is about $4,000, financed by the water district, he added.
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We have all kinds of non-native animals all over that have exploded over the past 20 years
My personal favorite are the iguanas that sometimes fall from the trees during a cold snap.
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I can't say I've noticed a size difference, but that's mostly because I've honestly not seen any green anole lizards in a long time. Nowadays, it's just the brown anole ones, which we tend to just call "Cuban lizards".
The other invasive species that seems to have established a rather impressive foothold here are Muscovy ducks. There's a rather large flock of them that sometimes hiss at me when I go to get my mail. The funny thing about the hissing is it's more like the wildlife equivalent of a quack.wav
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More expensive? (Score:1)
use live rabbits as snake lures but that became too expensive
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The total cost per robot rabbit is about $4,000
Live rabbits are more expensive? Acquisition cost should be nearly nil, since live rabbits breed like ... well, rabbits.
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How many snakes can a live rabbit find in the wild before its eaten ?? How often do the live rabbits need to be fed or monitored ?? As the video in the linked article shows, these robotic rabbits are in a cage off the ground with a solar collector. The snake will only see the heat emitted by the toy bunny. And automatically sends a message to a snake wrangler. And I am sure the company that designed and built this tried this many time to get it where it is today.
I would guess technology is not your thing.
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The setup was pretty much the same for live rabbits - they were kept in cages that the boas couldn't reach. But it was a much larger setup. A bigger cage, water bottle, feeder, it was like six times the size of the pictured toy one.
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The setup was pretty much the same for live rabbits - they were kept in cages that the boas couldn't reach. But it was a much larger setup. A bigger cage, water bottle, feeder, it was like six times the size of the pictured toy one.
This seems like a very expensive approach because of the need for human intervention.
I think it might better to allow the snake to swallow it, and design it to recognize when it is inside a snake, and deploy a buzz saw and cut its way back out to kill again. As long as you make sure it emits noise that would scare away any toddlers, speaks a warning message for their parents, and waits until it has been thoroughly ingested for ten minutes or so before cutting its way out, assuming an adequate power supply,
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such a device could potentially stay in the field for days or weeks at a time, killing snake after snake without mercy
And then next we'll have Screamers [wikipedia.org] going around the place.
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As noted by others, it's not the acquisition costs that kill, it's the maintenance. Rabbit feed, water, medical, cages, cleaning, etc...
The robot rabbits can be scented from a bottle, the solar panel and a battery keep it emitting heat visible to the snakes (which can see into the infrared), and attract them that way. No more need to carry around feed, water, and replacement rabbits. The robot rabbits can presumably be left in place for longer periods without maintenance.
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The other danger I presume is replacing a snake infestation with a rabbit infestation.
That said, Get really cheap fake rabbits that function as IEDs. Or coat the expensive ones with a durable poison.
Though I suppose you dont really want to poison the aligators.
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The other danger I presume is replacing a snake infestation with a rabbit infestation.
Ding ding ding! We have a winner! The last thing you want to do is replace a snake infestation with a rabbit infestation [wikipedia.org] - as the Australians discovered the hard way in the late 1800's to early 1900's. The winning feature of robot rabbits is that you can turn them off when you're done with them, or at the very least they'll run out of batteries, despite what certain commercial battery brands might want you to believe.
Florida Man says: It's wabbit season (Score:2)
Previously, there was an effort to use live rabbits as snake lures but that became too expensive and time-consuming, Kirkland said. ... The total cost per robot rabbit is about $4,000, financed by the water district, he added.
More expensive than $4k each!? Were they buying their live rabbits from a Ferengi?
Also, note to the /. editors, the story icon is cute, but Florida does not have a problem with invasive Python scripts.
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LOL, I didn't even notice till you mention this. Thanks for a good laugh.
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Figure 1 hour/day maintenance at $30/hour per live rabbit sensor/trap. That's $11k/year. While 1 hour might be excessive for actual labor, figure in the time to actually REACH the traps, which are going to be located in fairly remote spots.
Minimum wage in Florida is $14/hour and going to $15/hour. It's pretty standard to figure that actual employment costs run double once you introduce taxes, benefits, insurance, education, vacation, and everything else.
In this case, the office is likely a 'rough terrain
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The whole scheme seems more along the lines of "Oh neat, someone gave us free money to play with plush toys and every once in awhile kill a snake" than a truly cost effective means of controlling an invasive species. I kind of expected a rabbit killbot, but nope, it's just a cuddly looking fake rabbit in a cage, and still requires a human to venture out to dispatch the snake after receiving the proximity alert.
Maybe they're saving the killbot features for RoboBunny 2.0.
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Yeah, I'd be trying to design at least a live trap system where humans could come by once a week or so to sort and dispose of the pythons. At least until they have a selective trap that only catches the desired pythons.
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Wabbit (Score:2)
Rabbit of Caerbannog (Score:4, Funny)
They should have used the Rabbit of Caerbannog, well know to be deadly to Pythons.
Rev 2 (Score:2)
I'd like to build Rev 2, where the rabbit kills the snake. I'm thinking $12000 each seems fair.
Evolution (Score:2)
The snakes will evolve to detect and avoid these by various mannerism or appearance.
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95% is not decimation but annihilation. Use the right word.
Slightly offtopic but I believe the approved term is 'obliteration' [nytimes.com].
It's inevitable (Score:2)
Headline a few weeks from now...
FLORIDA MAN FOUND DEAD AFTER SEXUALLY ASSAULTING A ROBOT BUNNY
He's not the super hero we need, but the one we deserve.